Pension, benefits bill advances

Benjamin Franklin showed up. So did Abigail Adams and Thomas Paine. But even they couldn’t stop the Senate from passing a contentious measure Monday that will sharply raise the cost of health benefits and pensions for the state’s 500,000 public employees.

With protesters dressed in Revolutionary-era garb gathered outside the Statehouse and union members clamoring inside, the pivotal Senate vote came on the same day the Assembly Budget Committee approved by a 7-5 vote an identical version following eight hours of testimony.

After days of protest from Democrats, Republicans and union members, a last-minute provision inserted by Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) limiting public employees’ access to out-of-state hospitals was weakened hours before lawmakers met Monday.

The changes agreed to by Sweeney, shortly before the Senate approved the measure 24-15, would allow public workers to receive out-of-state care at a higher cost if a doctor decides the treatment is not available in New Jersey.

“If this bill was enacted 20 years ago, I wouldn’t have my kids today,” Stephanie Rosati-Pratico, a mother of two children with Down syndrome who required special medical care from the Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, told the Assembly committee. “And I think society would suffer, because my kids are great people.”

The Senate vote earlier in the day was a major legislative victory for Sweeney and Gov. Chris Christie, who along with others hammered out the agreement over the last two months even as they sparred over other issues.

“Problems like the pension and health care system require fundamental change from the bottom up,” Sweeney said on the Senate floor. “That kind of change comes from bold action ... and bold action often flies in the face of those who are content with the status quo.”

The bill increases pension costs up to two percent of workers’ salaries for all public employees, while at least doubling, and in many cases tripling, their health care contributions. It also raises the retirement age from 62 to 65, eliminates cost-of-living adjustments and creates a board to formulate a menu of health plans, including low-cost, high-deductible options.

“I am encouraged by the bipartisan Senate vote today and the continued display of support for common-sense pension and health benefits reform,” Christie said in a prepared statement. “This is a watershed moment for New Jersey, proving that the stakes are too high and the consequences all too real to stand by and do nothing.”

The Assembly is scheduled to vote on the bill Thursday, when it is expected to pass — just as in the Senate — despite little Democratic support.

“Inaction is just not an option for us,” Assembly Speaker Shelia Oliver (D-Essex) told the Assembly committee in her broadest public defense of the bill to date.

Oliver said public employees must pay their “fair share” to avoid further municipal layoffs and cuts to recreational and public health programs. But even various mayors who testified Monday agreed that the changes would provide little immediate financial relief because they will be phased in and go into effect after the current contract expires.

The changes are expected to save $10 million next year, far less than the $300 million the Christie administration had expected.

The Senate legislation (S2937) passed with the support of a handful of Democrats, including Teresa Ruiz, Jeff Van Drew, Fred Madden, Jim Whelan, James Beach, Brian Stack and Donald Norcross.

One Democrat after another took the floor to condemn the bill, saying it curtailed the right to collectively bargain, drawing applause and cheers from the gallery.

“Today is all about politics,” she said. The bill was a result of “back-room deals” instead of open debate. It restricts competition, she said, “an affront to free-market principles.”

Sweeney’s defenders were primarily Republicans, including state Sen. Joseph Kyrillos (R-Monmouth), a close friend of the governor. He called it a “historic day,” and praised Sweeney’s leadership.

The day began to unfold with impersonators of Franklin, Adams, Paine, Sojourner Truth and a handful of others in costume leading a group of 200 protesters across the Calhoun Street Bridge. They were joined by hundreds of other demonstrators after making their way from Morrisville, Pa., to Trenton.

And in a display lifted from the playbook of the Tea Party movement, many of the union members carried the Gadsden Flag emblazoned with “Don’t Tread on Me.”

“Those are traditional symbols of resistance from the Revolutionary War,” said Steve Wollmer, a spokesman for the New Jersey Education Association. “They’re timeless.”

As the crowd swelled to about 1,000 protesters marched outside the Statehouse complex chanting, “Kill the bill, kill the bill!”

Jessie Webb, a Spanish teacher and teachers’ aide in Princeton, said the state’s Democratic leaders had fallen for Christie’s claims about the financial plight of the state.

“He’s been successful at scaring them and scaring New Jersey that teachers are trying to put themselves above everyone else,” Webb said, holding a cutout of Christie on a popsicle stick.

She also criticized the governor for calling for shared sacrifice, while refusing to ask millionaires to pay more in income taxes.

At one point, protesters tried to enter the Statehouse but were repelled by State Troopers.

Public employees had planned to camp out in dozens of tents pitched on the lawn behind the Statehouse, according to the union, but the attorney general’s office refused to let them stay overnight because of security concerns.